Blondina Gobjilă, commonly known as “Mother Blandina,” was born on February 24, 1906, in the village of Grușenți-Chelmești in Bessarabia, into a priestly family. Her father was named Zaharia Popovici, and her mother Serafima. They had two more daughters and a son, Blandina being the youngest of them all. Her name comes from the Holy Martyr Blandina, who lived in the second century in the region of present-day Lyon and was martyred in the year 177 during the persecutions of Marcus Aurelius (161–180). The meaning of the name, derived from the Latin blandus, -a, -um, meaning “gentle, comforting, pleasant, charming, inviting,” very well describes both her character and the way she related to people throughout her life, regardless of the difficulties she encountered.
She received an excellent education, both moral and intellectual. The priestly family into which she was born deeply influenced her upbringing and personality. Faith, piety, love for the holy services, respect for one’s neighbor, and self-sacrifice were virtues she cultivated from earliest childhood until the end of her life. From the age of six she attended daily the services celebrated by her father, read at the chanter’s stand, knew the order of the services, replaced the chanter when needed, and knew the Divine Liturgy by heart. She attended elementary school and gymnasium, eventually becoming a teacher for grades one through seven.
On August 27, 1926, she married Gheorghe Gobjilă, an agronomist engineer and son of a priest, with whom she had one son, Vladislav-Slavcic. From this point, Mother Blandina’s life may be divided into three periods of fifteen years each: 1926–1941 were years spent in peace and happiness with her husband and their son; 1941–1956 was the period in which she was deported to Siberia; and from 1956 until 1971, when she departed to the Lord, she lived her years of freedom in Iași, at the Metropolitan Cathedral near Saint Paraskeva.
She received an excellent education, both moral and intellectual. The priestly family into which she was born deeply influenced her upbringing and personality. Faith, piety, love for the holy services, respect for one’s neighbor, and self-sacrifice were virtues she cultivated from earliest childhood until the end of her life. From the age of six she attended daily the services celebrated by her father, read at the chanter’s stand, knew the order of the services, replaced the chanter when needed, and knew the Divine Liturgy by heart. She attended elementary school and gymnasium, eventually becoming a teacher for grades one through seven.
On August 27, 1926, she married Gheorghe Gobjilă, an agronomist engineer and son of a priest, with whom she had one son, Vladislav-Slavcic. From this point, Mother Blandina’s life may be divided into three periods of fifteen years each: 1926–1941 were years spent in peace and happiness with her husband and their son; 1941–1956 was the period in which she was deported to Siberia; and from 1956 until 1971, when she departed to the Lord, she lived her years of freedom in Iași, at the Metropolitan Cathedral near Saint Paraskeva.
